Chapter Eighteen: Tragedy Strikes

Caleb finally managed to prep Gemini for his match. He had seen his brother off a few moments ago as Severen began his descent towards Earth. The bones in his knuckles cracked while he prepared to engage with his opponent Chris Procella for the 2nd round of the tournament. The dark green boosters slowly pulsated growing in size and intensity each second. As the visor slid over his face Caleb smirked arrogantly, he had no need for concern, he was sure that he would make it all the way to the final round. The steady vibrations that shook Gemini were something that every pilot was used to, the silent adrenaline rush of the MF launching.

Chris Procella was a recently transferred Lieutenant now in charge of his own MF unit. So far two of his pilots were eliminated from the tournament; he was the only pilot remaining in his unit. Chris was a well known naval officer and witnessed the climatic battle between Blue Dragon and Magna Star two years prior. His dark charcoal tinted hair flapped in the wind exerted from Gemini’s launch sequence. He stood about 5 foot 7 inches staring at his MF, Tempest; a biped MF holding onto a spread bazooka rifle along with a low ammunition grenade launcher attached to the wrist of the left arm. His main method of distraction however was a launching pod that fired out small spherical pods that moved autonomously through the atmosphere firing at a designated target, much like Blue Dragon’s OWS, but not quite as advanced. He shrugged his shoulders once Gemini was out in orbit, he knew it was his turn to follow suite. As his hands firmly strapped the restraints in tightly his visor slid down from his helmet. Once the launching lifter moved into position Tempest roared out of the hanger soaring into the next match of the tournament.

The vibrant stars oscillated throughout the shadowy canvas while the two MFs moved into their positions. The tournament so far had been proceeding at a steady pace, the winners only able to breathe freely for a few seconds while the losers would beat themselves up over their performances. The tournament proved to be the perfect distraction from the war at hand, as the war escalated to chaotic proportions the remainder of MF pilots and even spectators just focused their attention to the tournament. Many people believed that this could be the new form of Olympics between nations, the tournament was that exciting. Corporations such as Revelations and its Eastern counterpart Prodigy surfaced to fill the void that Genesis left. Both organizations began to construct MFs for their respected Governments in hopes that they felt would bring the war to an end. People continued to be blissfully ignorant as the 2nd round continued onward.

Caleb watched as the light flickered to green signaling the beginning of the match. Gemini roared with intensity as it dashed to the side. Chris instinctively reacted; his eyes followed the subtle movements that Gemini was performing. The green and teal MF swayed to the right, the boosters angled to the left pushed out flowing torrents of energy in order to keep the MF moving at an angle. Chris wanted to watch, to let Caleb be the first to strike so he might be able to get a quick glimpse at how his opponent would fight. And Caleb obliged; both of Gemini’s arms jolted back as the two bazookas’s fired. Chris watched as the two obsidian rockets pierced through the vacuum of space. Tempest dodged the attacks finally making its first move of the match. Caleb sneered, he knew his attack wasn’t anything special, in fact it was a simple maneuver and easy to avoid. Tempest suddenly began to speed towards Gemini with both of its armaments raised. Gemini did the same and the two MFs began to joust towards one another flaring with their weapons. The thunderous sound of the shells blaring out of the barrels boomed forth for everyone to here. A group of three rockets spread out as they headed for Gemini, two of those rockets exploded when Caleb countered by firing his bazookas. Gemini slid to the side dodging the final rocket but was caught with the abrupt grenade shell that was also fired from Tempest. The orange shell burst ignited a forceful explosion that managed to sway Gemini off its original course. Chris remained calm; a lock on box began to dance around the small image of Gemini that emanated from the main display screen in the cockpit. His thumb slowly advanced to the crimson button on the front throttle. On the back of Tempest’s core the chrome pod flipped opened sending out a barrage of metallic orbs. Each orb began to spin horizontally while miniature boosters ignited allowing them to fly towards Gemini.

“Pft, what the hell is this? Don’t insult me.” Caleb screamed. Gemini began to fire the bazookas relentlessly; Caleb ignored the spheres that were now floating around his MF, following his every movement. Tempest just remained on the defensive, avoiding as many rockets as he could. Naturally he couldn’t avoid them all and ended up getting caught. One rocket grazed the side of Tempest’s arm, the intensity of the collision sent Tempest’s of its path of movement. The halt in a gracefully dodging pattern caused Tempest to become engulfed in a sea of rockets. One by one each metal rocket pounded onto the core tossing it around like a doll. Caleb began to laugh, he had gained the advantage. Just as Gemini began to close the distance between it and Tempests the spheres began to move even faster blocking the MF’s line of travel.

“Those things are still there? What the hell?” Caleb’s eyes

As each bazooka fired the spheres moved avoiding the rockets. It was then that Caleb realized that they were no mere distracting spheres but something else. He then abruptly forced Gemini around while focusing all of his attention on the spheres that were buzzing around like insects. Tempest managed to recover from the rockets that were swarming him a few seconds ago and began to boost towards Gemini as Caleb appeared to be distracted.

“Heh, fell for it.” Chris mumbled. He then pressed the button controlling the orbital spheres. The signal quickly transmitted to the sphere, each sphere halted in their rotation, just as they did this Caleb snickered.  

“Got ya.” Caleb screamed. The gears in Gemini’s joints slowly spun raising the heavily armored bazookas into firing position. Before the green MF could fire each sphere opened in the middle revealing almost miniscule barrels. It was then that Caleb truly realized what the spheres were; suddenly the 3 spheres began to unleash a pouring assault of green energy beams at close range. The beams themselves weren’t drastically powerful, but they were able to pound onto Gemini giving Chris some time to approach undetected. His throat itched in irritation, he couldn’t believe that he had fallen for such a simplistic trick; his anger snapped leaving only his anger to control his actions. At first the beams continued to connect onto Gemini’s armor every single round, but after a few seconds Gemini began to dodge each attack no matter how many times the spheres would change direction.

“Did you honestly think I would be done in by this? Hahaha, who do you take me for?” Caleb screamed. Gemini’s laser cannon then flipped over its shoulder firing instantly. The yellowish tinted energy beam blasted through the 3 spheres. As smoke lingered amongst the debris of metal Tempest scorched by Gemini firing the grenade launcher, the shell exploded on Gemini’s back completely dislodging one of the two laser cannons. As Caleb watched the ivory and grey elongated weapon of destruction floated singed completely. Tempest had already sped past the green MF and was beginning to turn around. Chris’ eyes thinned focusing on his target; Gemini was lingering with smoke emanating profusely around the back of the torso. The grenade launcher hummed as it was about to fire another damaging round. Just as his finger retracted against the trigger the launcher did nothing more than screech loudly. He knew what it meant, he was out of ammo, and it couldn’t have happened at a worse time. Gemini was a fast MF, especially for the weight load that it was carrying. All Chris could see was a green blur zooming towards him, Chris could even register what had happened. Tempest was thrown to the side and Chris as well. The rockets continued to pound heavily on the silver MF with Caleb showing no signs of letting up. Just then Tempest launched another unit of orbital spheres, this time he continued to launch them one after another until at least a dozen spheres floated in space. All of them suddenly burst out heading towards Gemini one after another.

“Again? Why not try something different? I tire of this match!” Caleb screamed. He fired the bazookas but nothing fired, he too was out of ammo; he didn’t mind though, he still had his remaining laser cannon. Just as the cannon began to pivot on its joint the spheres all fired at once while moving around Gemini in random patterns of motion. Caleb began to look around frantically trying to get a steady lock on at least one of the spheres. The barrel began to hum loudly as the energy needed for the blast was generating. At that vital moment the spheres fired through the cannon causing it to explode instantly. The explosion was even fiercer due to the energy that was swirling inside; the blinding blast caused Gemini to flip through space uncontrollably. While Caleb struggled to remain balanced Tempest grabbed hold of its secured energy saber and sped off in the distance. With its right arm out in front of it leaning torso Tempest readied itself to strike. Gemini then struck Tempest with its right leg kicking it out of the way as Gemini tumbled around just as it grabbed onto its energy saber. As Gemini swung the end of its energy saber pierced through the upper layer of armor causing some the silver metal to flutter into the area.

In the hanger of Prosperity the space traffic control officers awaited the arrival of another transport of spectators. With the successful ratings of the tournament Genesis made tickets available to every man woman and child for attendance. Each ticket guaranteed its owner a single week of one round of action including room and board. However after that week was up they would take a transport to bring them back to Earth. This became a highly popular vacation package as thousands of people flocked to the nearest box office to purchase the highly expensive tickets at around $1,500 per stub. The shuttle was expected to arrive within ten minutes, usually the shuttle would send a signal indicating where they were and how much longer it would take to arrive at Prosperity, this shuttle had no signal.
The chrome shuttle itself had just left Earth’s atmosphere and began to enter space. The rumbling of the shuttle was normal and just an indication of it leaving Earth’s gravitational field. But to first time flyers they felt a little sick and even began to worry. The children sitting next to their families enjoyed the ride like they would any amusement park. Their wide eyes full of innocence shined at the sight of the stars and of the glowing ball of azure that humanity has come to call home. The rumbling of the shuttle was a bit more extreme then usual; the pilots took notice of this instantly but didn’t believe it was anything too serious to be concerned about. They got paid no matter what happened, just as long as they survived. The altimeters and all other internal gauges began to spin erratically giving off odd readings; it was then that they knew something was wrong. Both pilots glanced to each other hoping the other would know what was wrong and how to deal with the situation, but that was not the case. They were both bewildered at the situation.

“What happened? I thought all the equipment was perfectly operational before we left Earth!” The co-pilot screamed.

“I….I’m not sure…but….oh my God…”

“What?...WHAT?!”

“Our navigational system is out, and 2 of our four thrusters are out, at this rate we’ll shoot past Prosperity. I have little control over the direction of this shuttle now!”

“Try, try and hold it steady. I’ll get in contact with Prosperity, maybe they can send someone out to retrieve us….”
While both pilots broke into a state of panic each passenger just remained ignored, buckled into their seats or amusing their children.

The control panel inside Prosperity was shocked as well once they received word from the shuttle. This was the first time anything had ever occurred on this magnitude. Every navigator in the space station began working vigorously trying to figure out where the shuttle was going to end up. Once they figured it out everything became silent, it was an eerie atmosphere that no one liked at all.

“Sir…at this rate the shuttle is going to fling right into the current space arena.”

“This isn’t good; the match is still lingering on. If the shuttle gets tossed inside the match then they’ll be no guarantee of their safety. Alert the referees of the match! Tell them to call the match off!”

            Both Gemini and Tempest had sustained a severed amount of damage; their armor no longer sparkled brightly but now was dull and singed. Their weapons were fully expended and were done to their energy sabers; however Chris still had his orbital spheres that were doing a precise job at distracting Caleb. As sparks of electricity flickered from the engaged energy beams both Gemini and Tempest remained clutched in struggle unable to move the other. While both pilots continued to apply pressure their radios echoed the words “Danger, a shuttle on its way to Prosperity has been cast out of its tracks and is heading towards your arena. It is too dangerous to continue the match. For now stop the battle and if either of your MFs is functioning then please try to intervene and bring the shuttle to safety.”
Chris immediately paid diverted his attention to message, suddenly his mind was filled with images of children laughing and having fun. He was a soldier, and in his opinion it was his job to protect those who couldn’t protect themselves.

“Caleb! We have to save that shuttle! We can finish the match afterwards!” Chris screamed.

“What? You can’t seriously expect me to believe you can you? You’re a master of distraction! I bet this was some ploy to distract me so you could land a finishing blow well sorry to disappoint, but I’m not falling for it!” Caleb screamed back as his feet pressed hard onto the accelerator. As Gemini’s boosters ignited the green MF began to push Tempest back gaining the advantage.

“You have to be kidding! Why the hell would I come up with such a distraction? Now move! If we don’t then they might be caught in the cross fire!” Chris screamed. His last 6 orbital spheres launched and instantly began to fire beams of energy. The rain of energy continued to impact onto Gemini but Caleb continued to pay them no attention.

“You’re kidding me? They’re still fighting! At this rate everyone in that shuttle can die!” The head of the STC screamed.
“Wait, let me send out my team!” Ashley’s voice suddenly interrupted as she ran into the control room. Her dirty blonde hair flapping in the air as her body began to float towards the higher level in the control room.

“You’re team? What are you talking about? Who are you?”

“My name is Ashley Bellulus and I’m an MF operator for the TA. Now just move over and give me a head set.” Ashley said as she didn’t bother to wait for the captain’s response.

“Adam? Stephen, I need you guys to get your asses to the hanger we have a situation!” Ashley screamed.

“Already on it, I can handle this myself. I told Stephen and the others to just relax.” Adam replied.

“What? Just you?”

“Yeah, is that a problem?” Adam asked as he smirked. His restraints were already snapped into place, he was just waiting for the hanger doors to open.

“Ugh…fine. If you screw this up I’m going to personally kill you.” Ashley screamed firmly.

“Hahaha, don’t worry. I think I can handle this.” Adam replied.

The large obtuse doors slowly began to open, Adam took a deep breath, he wanted another opportunity to enter space with Blue Dragon and try out something he had been working on for the past few months but didn’t mention to anyone. Just as his feet began to move towards the accelerators his eyes widened as his entire MF began to quiver. He sneered, that vibration, the sound, he knew it all too clearly. It was another MF preparing to launch. Adam moved around so he could see out the right display screen to see who else was launching. The dark MF began to move and finally sprinted out of the background and flung out through the launch pad, Adam nearly froze in fear at the sheer sight of Shadow.

“Ashley what the hell? I thought we decided I’d do this alone!” Adam screamed.

“I know! I didn’t send him out, no one did. He must have been waiting for someone to open the hanger.”

“Shit…fine. I’ll deal with this. Adam Novus, Blue Dragon launching.” The cerulean flames tore out from the boosters as the blue MF shot out into space. Upon exiting the hanger Adam was shocked to see his communications screen light up. That face, he wouldn’t forget it.

“Our first priority is to confirm the safety of the shuttle. Once that is done they we can deal with Caleb and Chris.” Rebel stated.

“Priority? Who the hell are you to order me around?”

“I’m not ordering you around; I’m just informing you what is of the utmost importance. If we pay more attention to both of them then the shuttle might just inadvertently fly into the battle field.”

“…”

“Come on.” Rebel silently mentioned. Shadow zoomed away from Blue Dragon heading for the shuttle. Adam was furious, first this Rebel beat him in a match and now he was acting like his superior, feeding him orders. He shrugged it off though; he knew that he needed to save the lives of the people on the shuttle. Blue Dragon soon flew following the path that Shadow laid out.

            In the distance Caleb continued to struggle with Chris refusing to budge while Chris was trying to do everything within his power to get away to aide the shuttle.

“Damn it! I don’t have time for this!” Chris screamed. Tempest quickly kicked Gemini in the middle of the torso. As Gemini fell backwards Tempest sped away heading for the shuttle. Chris was unaware of either Adam or Rebel already heading in that direction. Caleb abruptly swung Gemini around, his heart rate had accelerated tremendously; he never expected Chris to be this much of a challenge.

“Where the hell are you going?! You’re running away! I won’t let you run away!” Caleb exclaimed loudly.
Gemini violently burst out of its position flying towards Tempest. His green eyes caught sight of the shuttle that was quickly advancing towards them. At first he couldn’t make it out in detail and though it was just another one of the orbital spheres that Chris had been launching throughout the match.

“Another one…you bastard. I’ll finish it off quickly!” Gemini sped towards the shuttle at an alarming rate with the energy saber ignited. Chris wanted to get in the way but as Tempest continued to move it began to lose its energy fast. He was pushing his MF way too hard and paid dearly for it. Tempest’s boosters slowly died out leaving the silver MF floating lifelessly through space. Chris pounded his control panel constantly, he had no choice now but to wait for the energy to recharge, he could only hope that Caleb would realize that it was a shuttle and halt his attack.

The shuttle continued to fly without navigational or manual control, by now every passenger was well aware of the impending danger, if they weren’t told directly they could now see the advancing MF. Parents covered their children’s eyes not wanting them to see what was happening. No one could understand why an MF was approaching them in such an offensive manner.
Caleb continued to approach the shuttle; his body was in a searing amount of pain from the match. His exhaustion had hindered his judgment, his pupils were now bloodshot and his vision poor. No longer could he distinguish the shuttle from another orbital sphere. The distressed shuttle appeared as a target to him, another distraction launched by Chris in an attempts to defeat him.

Just as Gemini’s arm began to swing dozens of cerulean beams blasted onto the green MF sending it tumbling in the opposite direction. Caleb jumped out of his seat in confusion, he had expected the energy beams to come from the object he was heading towards and not from all other directions. Once Gemini stabilized he began to rub his eyes at a rapid rate. As his blurred vision slowly returned a grin took shape on his face. Blue Dragon now hovered in between him and the shuttle. The orbital wings quickly reconnected to the back of the blue MF as an outlining azure glow emanated from the MF. Adam reluctantly glanced over his shoulder looking at Shadow. The dark MF slowly clutched onto the out of control shuttle.

“You got the shuttle?” Adam mumbled. It really hurt his pride to make sure that Rebel made sure the people were fine.

“I got them. The shuttle has been retrieved; I’m heading back to Prosperity to deliver them safely.”

“Alright….”

“And you?”

“I’m going to stay here. I have some things I need to take care of.” Adam replied.

“I see, be aware that the match has been officially declared as a stalemate and is over. They will be proceeding with the following matches in Section ‘B’ today as well in order to make the tournament go by quicker.” Rebel replied as Shadow slowly flew back towards Prosperity.
Adam smirked as he turned back towards Gemini; he was finally alone with the man that he felt betrayed him 2 years ago.

“I’ve been waiting for the moment where I could talk to you.” Adam mumbled.

“I see. Well I hate to disappoint Adam, but I don’t intend on telling you much of anything.”

“I expected that you wouldn’t. I’m prepared to beat it out of you.” Adam replied. The eight wings abruptly straightened outwards as Blue Dragon’s torso leaned forward.

“Oh…taking that path then are we. Well I’ll be more than happy to oblige.” Caleb replied. Gemini took the first step at an offensive attack. The green MF lunged forward attempting to strike Adam. With ease Blue Dragon swayed to the right avoiding the attack and countered with a quick kick to Gemini’s left side. The intensity of the kick was light and managed to push Gemini away.

“I know you’ve been fighting Caleb, but I expected much better.”

“You….why does he want you?!” Caleb screamed. Adam’s eyes widened, he didn’t have any idea what Caleb meant. Gemini continued to slash without much direction, Blue Dragon continued to boost backwards avoiding every attack.

“What are you talking about?”

“Luscious! He seems to believe that you’re the key!” Caleb continued to ramble on. Adam then went on the offensive and slashed through Gemini’s left arm with his energy saber. As the arm fluttered completely singed and lifeless Gemini sped towards Blue Dragon continuing to slash the remaining energy saber. Blue Dragon then swung its saber as well; the two MFs became ensnared in a struggle as sparks of energy burst out in all directions as the two energy sabers collided.

“You’re not making any sense! What the hell are you talking about?!” Adam screamed.

“Ever since you were an intern, Luscious had his eye on you! You were the brother of the hybrid after all, so naturally you were a prime candidate for the Chimera project as well. But we all know how that turned out! You inadvertently caused the death of your brother and directly caused the death of your friend, Mike Aquilis. How does that feel, how does it feel to live on with the guilt? You nothing more than a pawn Adam, you’re not unique, you should have died alongside of your brother and your friend!” Caleb screamed.

“NO!” As Adam’s emotions ran high Blue Dragon sliced through Gemini’s remaining arm completely disabling Caleb. It didn’t end there, the azure wings quickly separately flying towards Gemini. Each wing began to pulsate with cerulean energy and quickly began to fire torrents of energy through Gemini. Each joint on the green MF began to emanate smoke and sparks of electricity until they became severed leaving Gemini’s torso and head unit intact. Caleb began to chuckle under his breath as Blue Dragon soared towards his one time ally.

“Tell me everything! And I mean everything! I want to know what the hell Genesis is doing!”

“Hehehe….” Caleb began to laugh as trickles of blood flowed down his face caressing the crevices and contours of his head. His head had been thrown around the cockpit the entire day from each attack that Gemini sustained. His visor was shattered; pieces of the thin plastic shards were imbedded into his fragile pale skin. Yet despite all the injuries he still managed to laugh, he knew things that most were ignorant to.

“Why are you laughing? Tell me!” Adam screamed. Blue Dragon then grabbed hold of Gemini’s cockpit. The metallic fingers slowly pushing inwards crushing the damaged armor, even though he was extremely frustrated he still had control over his actions and knew to keep the pressure back a bit so to not destroy the cockpit and killing Caleb in the process.

“Do you really wish to know everything? Do you think you can handle all of it?”

“Stop taunting me and tell me!”

“Hehe…*cough*...Well I guess I’ll start at the beginning then…*cough* Genesis has been pulling the strings belonging to both the EAP and the TA. This war is because of Genesis, haha, people are so ignorant it is truly amusing. Pilots belonging to Genesis…well you’re aware of our dirty little secret, the clones of fallen military MF pilots attacked facilities on both camps. This instigated the TA and the EAP to conflict, after that human arrogance and greed kicked in and took the war to the point it is at now…*cough*…Now Chimera, heh, there was a plan. Since the screw up of Atlas…that’s right, Atlas and the AI revolt was based on human error not AI evolution. The Government wanted a new weapon, a weapon that the EAP couldn’t handle and thus order from Genesis a Chimera…and well, you know what happened next…*cough*. Caleb’s head rocked as his conscious continued to slip.

“…no…Amy…” Adam mumbled. It was the first time he encounter the Chimera.

“Yep…*cough*…there were no terrorists at that exam, they were clones created by us. The Government needed Harold Caecus eliminated because of his morals. The EAP learned to hate the United States through Harold’s extremely radical beliefs. The Chimera was sent in to kill off the “terrorists” because they failed due to your intervention. After that…*cough*…Nick went insane from the chip implanted in the back of his head…*cough*…”

“You bastard….” Adam slipped into a calm state of anger, he tried to contain everything, but he knew what he wanted to do. And if he was more impulsive he would have killed Caleb on the spot.

“I’m sure you’d also like to know about why your friends were murdered too *cough*…well that’s your fault because you forced Sean Repens to feed you information. But if you’d like to know more about what happened then I’d suggest you talk to Leo Ombra, I believe he’s more available now that he lost to your newest comrade

Zach…*cough*…

“Leo….that pilot is the one…”

“Yep…now, that should bring you up to speed I believe….Rebel358 should now be your biggest concern because you see, he is a failed….” Suddenly Gemini’s torso exploded in Blue Dragon’s hands. The explosion sent uproar of metallic derbis flinging in all directions. Blue Dragon was sent twirling uncontrollably from the explosion. Adam quickly stabilized the controls, his radar continued to beep radically. Another MF was now on the scene.

“You should have just let it go Adam…but no, you had to go and ask questions.” Rebel358’s voice was cold and sharp. Not at all like the tone he was talking in before or ever before since he and Adam had met. Adam shook his head trying to keep composure as he watched Shadow descend from the darkness with smoke protruding from the plasma rifle. He killed Caleb; Adam knew that he didn’t want anyone knowing the true origins behind is existence. Blue Dragon flipped over and quickly flew towards Shadow; Adam wanted to end everything as quickly as possible.

“So you had to kill Caleb in order to keep him from telling people about your secret.” Adam mumbled.

“I killed Caleb because he was weak, and weak people do not deserve the luxury of life. Now as far as you go, I’d suggest giving up on Genesis and going back to your girlfriend. You wouldn’t want to get hurt.” Rebel replied firmly.

“I’ve been hurt before, I’ll live.”

“Heh, at least your sense of humor is intact. I like that. I’m looking forward to getting the opportunity to facing you in your MF.” Rebel replied.

“Why wait then?”

“You’re not ready for me. Not yet anyway.” Rebel said subtly as his hands moved over to the throttles. The soft eloquent crimson flames emanated out of Shadow’s boosters and Rebel358 sped out of sight leaving Blue Dragon hovering in space just above the glistening Earth. Adam sighed and took off his helmet. The heat was getting to him, in more ways then one. As he brushed his hand through his hair be punched the control panel, he had never anticipated for things to turn out the ways that they had.

            “Is it done?” Luscious’ voice softly loomed through the communications display in Shadow.

“Of course, Caleb has been disposed of. But I’m not sure how much Adam has learned.”

“Don’t worry about it. Good job. I don’t I could have done a better job.”